What I Regret
by zopponde
Summary: Name: Niroshi Haruka.  Home: Sand Village, no matter which village the forehead protector says.  Abilities: Family trait that allows to manipulate every cell originating from my body.  This is my story, and I'm going to tell it if you listen or not...
1. Prologue: Recollection

So...it's not really second-person, it's just dialogue from only one character. Future chapters are a lot less vague. I just like prologues with different styles than the rest of the story.

Eh...Naruto (c) Masashi Kishimoto, not me

Every named character (to my memory) mentioned in _this_ chapter (c) me, Zopponde. Using them without advanced permission will result in the stealing/devouring of your soul.

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_**Recollection**  
Prologue_

Um...hello?...Good morning?

I...I _think_ so. I will be soon if I'm not already. But...where am I?

Wow...I never would have thought this would happen from my old life...

Do you really want to know?

Not a lot of people seem interested in me. Let alone strangers.

Well, I guess you saved my life, so I'll tell you. My day used to start like this:

I'd wake up, about the time the sun came up. About the first thing to cross my mind was usually something like, _Damn sun, always waking me up. I can tell my cells to sleep, so why can't I tell them to sleep through sunrise? Just three minutes past sunrise, I ask of you, cells!_

I'd sigh and groan and maybe roll over and try to sleep again if Kazuki-niisan didn't come in. He'd usually come in and go, "Haruka, it's breakfast time!" all sing-song-y and syncopated like that. He wasn't so bad at singing, I guess, but I'd groan with the exact same pitch for the exact same amount of time before I rolled over to face away from him.

Kazuki-niisan would always sigh and say, "Haru-chan, wake up already and make breakfast so I don't have to lie to Haruka when I wake her up."

I never could help it; I'd always grin and tell him sleepily, "Fine, but go away so I can brush my hair." He knew I didn't get any real kind of bed head, but I'd tell him that anyway, and he'd make this sound that was kind of like a sigh and a laugh at once, and say, "Okay, but I'm coming back in a minute and if you're not ready to face the day, I'm dragging you out by the ankles, like it or not," and leave, closing the door behind him.

Then I'd smile and sigh blissfully as I pushed the sheets down to their regular place at the foot of the foot of the bed, wrinkled and disorganized. It didn't matter that my room was a mess; nobody really came in anyway, just Kazuki-niisan in the mornings, and he never cared.

I used to go over to my mirror hanging on the door and sigh at my hair; it always had a perfect center part in the mornings, not a hair out of place from the perfectly organized hairstyle. Of course, I wasn't organized enough to like it; I'd have to mess it up so that it went to a left part. I'd get dressed, well within Kazuki-niisan's minute-limit, and walk down the hall to the kitchen, where I'd make some kind of breakfast, humming whatever tune was in my head at that moment and telling my skin cells on my head to deal with the change in hair position and that if they'd just let it stay that way it wouldn't be so uncomfortable when I parted it again.

Before he passed on, Arata-tousan used to be up about halfway between when I started cooking and when it was done. He'd be blinking and squinting, running a hand through his hair as we watched his foster-daughter cook breakfast. He'd usually complain about how bright it was before he went on to ask if the food was ready yet, and I'd tell him cheerfully when it would be done. All he could do is moan that he thought it was already ready, and that I cook too slow, but I knew that he was just joking, and I'd laugh softly and tell him that if he'd wake up later than I could call him to breakfast and it would be the first thing he'd notice instead of how bright it was.

He'd chuckle tiredly and say, "True, true," as he sat down heavily at the table and waited patiently for Kazuki-niisan to bring him the newspaper as he always knew to do for his father.

I know that the way I'm saying this makes Arata-tousan sound almost like a bad person, but really, he wasn't; he was just kind of grumpy in the morning. Actually, if he hadn't been so kind, I wouldn't have been living so happily with Kazuki-niisan after Kaa-san got sick…

…Anyway, after we all finished having breakfast (we ate together, but we never really talked at breakfast), before Kazuki-niisan graduated from the ninja academy, we'd go out together to school, and separate into our classes at the last possible second. Really, we were nearly inseparable, to the point where we were late to class as many times as we could afford—which was really saying something, because we both had high hopes of success.

Maybe I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for our being late so often….

Well, we'd attend classes, and got the highest possible grades for being late so much. In other words, we were on the border of failing…until Arata-tousan went missing on a mission.

When he went missing, Kazuki-niisan and I were pretty well off, all things considered, because he had prepared for this and left a lot of money for us. We got a little money from being without an income, and between those two sources, we got along well enough to stay alive in our old home. In some ways, we were doing even better, because then we had true motivation to start doing well in school. We were never late again and got the best grades in our respective classes. I don't know how we did in comparison to each other, but we got whatever we really needed and we knew that we would soon graduate and have our own income and be able to pay for ourselves without help from Arata-tousan's reserves.

He was still missing when Kazuki-niisan graduated. I was so proud of him, even if he wasn't really my brother; he took care of me like a father after Arata-tousan disappeared, and we were close as family, so it was only natural for me to be proud of being almost related to a new Sand Village Gennin. At that point, between what Arata-tousan had left behind and Kazuki-niisan's new income, we were pretty well off…or so I thought.

One day, we heard the news; they had found Arata-tousan's body. He was confirmed dead, so Kazuki-niisan was the only way we could get any new money until I graduated. Naturally, I tried my hardest, and my teacher told me that I was the closest thing to guaranteed to graduate the next year as I could be.

Unfortunately, there was too much time between when she said that and the exam that I needed to take to graduate. Kazuki-niisan told me one night over supper that he was going out on a long mission in another village. He was leaving early in the morning, and wouldn't be back for supper tomorrow, probably even the next. I didn't know what he was really doing, so I let him go without really questioning it.

The next day, I went off to school. On my way, I saw one of Kazuki-niisan's teammates. She wanted to know where he was. I told her what I thought; he was off on a mission in another village, but even as I said it I realized the problem, and she pointed that out to me the moment the words came out of my mouth.

_If he was on a mission, she wouldn't be there, and she wouldn't be wondering where he was._

We looked so hard that I was late to class for the first time since Arata-tousan disappeared.

When I got home, I was so anxious I couldn't sit still, so I started pacing around the house. I remember eventually ending up walking into Kazuki-niisan's room, and I saw that he left the bandana with the Sand symbol on it, sitting on the bed.

And that told me that he'd be back as soon as he could. He was too proud of his graduation to leave the proof of it behind for any reason other than proving that he wouldn't.

Sure enough, he was back the next day.

Needless to say, I pestered him with questions about where he was. All he'd say was "I can't say," until I finally got him to crack and tell me, "I was making some plans. You'll know all about them soon enough."

I remember sighing and letting him be for then. I figured I'd ask him more later-—but later never came.

The next morning, I woke up, after sunrise, in a hospital room. I didn't have these scars until then…I honestly don't remember getting those scars. I just remember falling asleep and waking up with them.

Eventually, a nurse came around, and she explained what she knew—-that I'd been found unconscious on the hospital's doorstep with a note. She was kind and let me read the note.

In a nutshell, it was an apology for leaving me; an explanation of why he had left the day before; a note saying that I was going to leave for the Leaf Village to live with my mother's family, whom she ran away from; and it was an apology for leaving me with the family that my mother made such an effort to keep me from. And he mentioned something about my little ability to talk to all of my body being a family thing, so maybe it wouldn't be all that bad in Leaf. He said.

That's why the forehead protector in your hand is from the Leaf Village and not the Sand.

Do you have any idea how hard I worked for that forehead protector? I had to change gears entirely, going from virtually no cover and thus not very much specific strategy to spending more time hiding behind trees and walking softly than technique and strength.

I still hate the forest. It's a little cooler but so humid that it's worse than the desert, and the bugs keep eating me alive, and I still don't know anyone, and I seem to be quite appetizing for the bugs.

Did I mention the whole bug issue?

Okay, _now_ I know why I had it worse; there was a guy, he had a bit of a bug thing going on, and he kept following me everywhere. So much so that when I was forced to retire, he went and talked my aunt—the person taking care of me there—into letting him marry me.

_Marriage? _**_Arranged_**_ marriage?!_

That's why my mother ran away, by the way. My aunt was the head of the family, and she decided that my mother, her sister, was to marry someone beneficial to the family. But she loved someone else. So she ran away.

She once told me why I don't know my real father; she said he had already planned for them to run away when she told him about her plans, but his plans were more, well, planned, so they went with those. Soon, though, my mother got pregnant (with me), and realized that the plan they had involved making a new village, and that whole plot seemed a little risky for a newborn child. So she ran away from her plans to run away, away from the man she ran away with. She ran to Sand Village, where I was born, and where I met Kazuki-niisan, and where she got sick and passed away, and where I lived with Kazuki-niisan until he ran away.

What is up with my life and running away?

So, anyway, in the desert, there were virtually no bugs, so I had no previous way of knowing that I had a horrible phobia of bugs.

See the problem yet? That whole about-to-be-forcibly-married-to-a-guy-who-is-one-with-your-worst-and-most-unwanted-fear thing? Yeah. I think my reasons for being here are very good ones.

Everything was set up for the marriage, and we were having this cute little party to celebrate. If I'd been born into that family, I would have been perfectly happy with it, smiling and dancing and whatever like a girl who just married the handsome prince of her kingdom. Really, the guy himself wasn't that bad, just a little…stalker-ish, and the bug thing freaked me out too much, and that's why I…

…that's why I'm here. That's why I had to leave, and that's why I fell into the river, and that seems to be why you found me, and that's why I'm here.

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Um...in case anyone's wondering, I don't have a Beta reader or anything, I just try to read through them before I post them, which isn't so easy when you pretty much know it by heart anyway. So, if anyone's willing to Beta read for Chapter 1...say so, please!

(By the way, I have a _lot_ of this story written--over eighty thousand words, so my not posting them yet is because I'm tired of posting some big long thing and nobody seeing it--so nothing more until someone reviews or something.)


	2. Chapter 1: First Impression

(ignore this part if you don't care about disclaimers and author's ramblings.) 

Wheeeeeeeeeee, chapter 1!! Posted because...meh, I feel like it. Normally I wouldn't post until I got a comment...er, I guess they're reviews here? Anyway, my point exactly--I'm new, I really shouldn't be expecting so much. That's why I only just got the first eleven chapters and prologue up where it seems most popular... ;; 

Anyways... 

I do not own Naruto, the world of Naruto, or any other characters.

Haruka, Kazuki, Misaki (c) me, Zopponde

I wish I could take OCs but there wasn't enough of a response where it was originally posted (little site known as Fanart Central), so I just kind of kept on writing (because I felt about to explode with ideas at the time), and now there's...wow, almost 90 thousand words (some...180 pages, theoretically?), some forty-fortyfive chapters, and, yeah...it would take too long for anyone to know afforementioned OC's existance in the world, and...yeah, backstory, previous involvement, whatnot...I really don't like revising previous chapters. So...if I ever post enough that I have to post stuff that's recently written, then yeah, I'll take anyone who wants in and...that I can fit...

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First Impression  
Chapter 1

The sheets on the old mattress were dirty, but the injured girl in them didn't know. She was still unconscious, just as she was when she was placed within them. The short dark hair that covered most of her head was still wet and dirty from her fall into the river, and was forming unattractive clumps in the longer front part.

Two other figures were within the room; both clad in the same black cloaks and straw hats. Neither had any kind of bedding; both seemed content to sit and lean in different corners and fall asleep that way, although it was hard to tell; neither showed many signs of being alive, let alone obviously awake or asleep.

The river's movement could be heard from outside. It wasn't really strong or anything, it was just close enough and the housing was old and thin enough that if anyone was awake, they would be able to hear the water rushing past within the barriers of the riverbed.

At some point in the earliest hours of the next day, the girl in the makeshift bed began to stir. They weren't signs of awakening; they were more so the signs of a troubling dream. She twitched her hand and her mouth moved as she breathed just heavily enough that one standing directly next to her might be able to hear her murmuring, "Kazuki-niisan…come back…"

Eventually, her twitching became somewhat regular, in the same pattern: the motion of groping for something just beyond reach. Her breathing became heavier, and her words reached a volume about the same as the river, perhaps a bit quieter.

One of the black-cloaked figures happened to be in the corner closest to her. As her arm extended, it brought her body somewhat closer to where the figure sat, until her reaching arm touched the sleeve of his robe.

The girl's hand clenched around the sleeve's cloth. Her subconscious mind noticed that her body made contact, and, because of similarities in her dream, her subconscious woke her up when she called softly, "Kazuki-niisan!" as she pulled the cloth.

The cloaked figure, pulled by her subconscious tug, fell over as she woke, landing on her.

The figure sighed and returned to its previous position. The girl, however, was a bit more social.

"Um…hello?…Good morning?" she asked tentatively.

The figure turned its head, and the girl saw his dark eyes and what looked like worry lines on his face. "Are you feeling better now?"

"I…I _think_ so," the girl answered uncertainly. "I will be soon if I'm not already. But," she added, looking around at the crummy old shack, "where am I?"

The cloaked man sighed. "We found you in the river on the border of Fire Country. You were unconscious, so we decided you could sleep here while you recovered. You seemed a bit injured."

"Wow," said the girl. "I never would have thought this would happen from my old life."

"What was it like?" the cloaked man asked, not sounding like he really cared.

"…Do you really want to know?" the girl asked.

The man nodded.

The girl hesitated, suspicious. "Not a lot of people care about me. Let alone strangers."

"I'd like to know if the life I saved was worthy of the help." He pulled out the headband with a strip of metal attached, the symbol in that land that the carrier was a ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

The girl recognized it as hers. "Well," she sighed, almost smiling tiredly, "I guess you saved my life, so you might as well know about it. My day used to start out like this…"

She went on to explain her life, how it began in the Sand Village, how her family all died or left her one by one, until the only people who could take care of her were her relatives in the Leaf Village. She told of her adjustment, how her family set her up with a person who controlled her very worst fear, and how that pushed her to run away, which had her end up in the river where the cloaked man said he found her.

As the girl spoke of her past, the other cloaked figure began to stir. As the girl came closer to the end of her story, the figure stood and moved to the pitiful excuse for a fireplace and began to cook something.

"…and that's why I'm here," the girl's story came to a close with a distant look.

She was obviously not telling everything of her story. The cloaked man who listened to her tale began to say something about this when she changed the subject entirely.

"Is that food I smell?" she asked hungrily, sniffing the air. "Do you have any idea how hungry I am? Please tell me there's some for me."

The figure walked over to the corner in which the others sat with his finished product. "Barely," he growled. "We were running a little thin on supplied even before someone found a helpless little girl in the river who just had to be saved." He rolled his eyes. "Trust me, kid, you're lucky. He doesn't even give Misaki that kind of attention. Although he should, if it would make her shut up."

The girl nodded her head to hide her embarrassment at being the cause of their hardship, even as she silently smiled at his comment about someone being too talkative and wondered who that person was. There certainly weren't any girls here.

The vaguely friendlier figure glared at the cook. "You wouldn't be very willing to give a girl like that the kind of attention she wants, either."

The second figure laughed. "Says the man who went so far out of his way to make sure she got in."

The girl smiled faintly as the cloaked men continued their argument about a girl she didn't know. However, the second man had set the food reasonably close to her, and she reached out for it.

Both of their attentions snapped over to her. For the first time, she saw the second figure's face, and she realized that his face was, oddly enough, blue. She would have stopped anyway, but she instead pulled her hand back and hoped that she could still have some. She could feel her stomach rumbling, and she knew that she'd need food to recover from the recent events in her life.

The blue man frowned and divided the food equally into two. He gave one dish to his partner and kept the other.

The girl sighed and made an expression of pure and pitiful envy. She was really hungry and knew that she would be even more so for the next week or so. Her stomach growled loudly.

The friendlier figure held his chopsticks in midair and looked at her tiredly. She returned a look that tried to say that she was okay as it was. He sighed and handed over his plate.

The girl was gratefully surprised, but the man's partner glared at him. "I gave that to _you_, not her."

The dark-eyed man looked at his partner tiredly. "I'm not hungry, and she needs it more than I do."

A heavy silence settled among the three. The girl broke it nervously by saying, "Uh, thank you, um…"

The man who gave her his plate turned to look at her coolly. "Uchiha Itachi."

"Uchiha?" The girl recognized the name, somewhere…she couldn't remember where. It was probably the name of one of the other ninjas from the Leaf Village that she didn't care about. "I think I might have heard that name once before…"

The blue man snorted. "What kind of Leaf Village ninja are you that you don't know the story about the Uchihas?"

The girl stared at him with ice in her gray-green eyes. "Leaf Village never was my home, and it never will be. I do not care about what happens to other people there." She turned back to her food and began eating huffily.

The blue man looked at Itachi, who just stared back coolly, before shrugging and going on to eat his own meal.

The girl ate fast; before three minutes passed, she sighed tiredly and set her chopsticks down on her empty plate. "I'm sorry," she began, turning to Itachi. "I just ate all your food without even properly introducing myself. My name is Niroshi Haruka."

Itachi nodded slowly and introduced his partner, who seemed too busy eating to respond for himself. "You know my name already, and my partner's name is Hoshigaki Kisame."

Haruka nodded to Kisame. "Hello, and thank you for the meal."

An awkward silence fell on the three people. It held its grip firmly for some time and remained in place even as Kisame finished with his share of breakfast, and wasn't broken until shortly after that when Haruka sneezed.

Itachi turned to look at her. "Please don't get a cold. It would inconvenience everyone greatly."

Haruka paused, looking distant and thoughtful, and Itachi was about to turn his attention away when she answered, "I'm in the lower stages of a mild cold. I can take care of it pretty easily…but do we have any more food?"

Kisame snorted. "Itachi, we should just go and leave the girl to beg for scraps from other people. People that _have more supplies_ than we do."

Haruka frowned. "There's a river just outside, right? I think I saw some fish there—that's why I stopped there, and that's why I fell in. Does anyone have a fishing rod?"

"We generally pack our food ahead of time," Itachi answered, "and we have money for food in town. We don't usually need such things."

Haruka sighed and sat up. "I don't suppose you found a backpack anywhere nearby when you found me, did you?"

Itachi shook his head. "Just your forehead protector."

Haruka swung her legs out from under the sheets. "Then I guess I should see if I can find it."

Itachi stared at her coolly. "You have a cold and I doubt that anyone could possibly be recovered from that fall in the river already. You are not going out."

Haruka raised her scarred eyebrow. "Did I forget to mention that whole thing? I guess I did," she answered herself. She sighed and ran a hand through her crusted hair. "You know what a bloodline trait is, right?"

Itachi's face moved such that he was probably grinning knowingly, but Haruka couldn't tell because of his high collar. Kisame snorted. "Itachi's a bit of an expert on those."

Haruka smiled. "Good. Saves a bit of explaining. So," she went on, "the Niroshi family has one such trait. And that trait is an ability to consciously and completely control every cell in our body. We can do whatever we want with any part of our body. But," she added, "what a lot of people don't understand is that not all bloodline traits are all good."

"We know that," Itachi interrupted.

Haruka paused, shrugged, and kept going. "Well, in our case, micro-managing our bodies takes a lot of energy, more than using medicines and other simpler cures, so we need a good deal more food than most people, when we're using our ability. We get hungry easily, and that's why I'd like to find my backpack with a fishing rod in it so I can catch some fish, which I will eat for energy to help me control my immune system and kill this cold.

"Also," Haruka went on for clarity, "it means that I used some of my energy to heal my injuries from my fall in the river. They're not entirely healed, but they're close enough that I'll be fine walking calmly along the river looking for what I packed."

Itachi sighed. "Then go out and look for it. I don't care."

Haruka smiled at him and continued getting up. She looked down at herself; the dirty sheets and her wet body and clothes mixed together to make her rather dirty, but she knew she should avoid bathing until she cured herself or found a hot spring or similar. She wiggled her toes; they were crusted in dirt from the night before, when she dangled her feet in the river before walking around a bit barefoot, and the last she remembered of her shoes, they were still at the riverside. They probably ended up in the river one way or another, but she still might not see them again.

She sighed. _Not a full conscious day gone, and I'm already missing some of those damn luxuries_, she thought, slightly irritated at herself.

Haruka stretched herself out as she walked toward the door. When she reached it, she thought of something and turned to say, "Kisame-san, leave without me or not, I don't care, but I'd kind of prefer to at least know when you're leaving," before she walked outside.

The shack hadn't exactly been ideal for keeping the light out—Haruka hadn't been surprised in the least to find that she'd woken at sunrise, whether or not she usually did—but she still blinked in the full sunshine. As soon as her eyes stopped watering, she blinked and smiled at what she saw: her backpack had washed ashore right at her feet. She picked it up and paused to consider what to do next before she slung it over her shoulder and looked around the river's shore to decide which way to go. She looked right, upstream, and grinned gleefully, almost laughing softly, when she saw that her shoes had neatly reached shore not ten feet upstream of her backpack.

After her shoes were on again, Haruka sighed and took her backpack off. She rummaged through it for a short period of time before she took out her neatly packed traveling fishing rod and unpacked it. She sighed again. She really didn't like fish, but maybe she could find something else in the forest nearby to wash it down.

Haruka put her hands together in a short series of ninja seals before a perfect replica of her appeared beside her in a small puff of smoke. One of her images took a seat with the fishing rod while the other went into the forest.

The flap-of-a-door on the shack parted, and Itachi walked out, without his hat for the first time that she knew, blinking in the sun much like Haruka had not a minute ago. Her remaining image turned to face him smilingly. "Hello, Itachi-sama."

He blinked again, then proceeded to sit down next to her. "That was fast."

Haruka grinned. "It was right here," she said, pointing to the dirt next to her, where it had been before she picked it up. "And my shoes were just a little bit that way," she added, pointing upstream. She paused a moment, then reached down and pulled them off so she could dangle her feet in the water.

Itachi sighed. "Why exactly did you run away?"

Haruka froze. "Wh-what do you mean?" she asked fearfully.

"You said that it had something to do with an arranged marriage, but that doesn't seem such a likely excuse," Itachi explained. "If that was the only problem, you seem the person who would run away from her family, not her village."

"It's not my village!" she snapped. "How many times do I need to tell you people?"

Itachi sighed. "Okay. _The Leaf_ Village. Why did you run away from all that?"

Haruka paused, staring distantly into space. "I don't know. I…I guess I just needed some time to myself, so I decided to go out here…"

"How long did you plan on being out?" Itachi asked.

"Oh, n-not long," Haruka stammered, "j-just a day, o-or maybe two—less than a week, I know…"

"Really…" Itachi seemed to doubt this story.

"Y-yeah," Haruka answered, relieved that he didn't question further.

Itachi sighed. "Then maybe we should escort you ba—"

"_**NO**_!" Haruka jumped before trying to appear more calmed down, but there was still panic in her voice as she went on, "N-no, I'm not going back. I don't _want_ to go back, I never want to see the Leaf Village again!"

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem the person who would just leave for no reason."

"No," Haruka went on, "I-I'm not going to tell you, I'm not going to tell anyone, I-I'm not going to let anyone know what horrible things I've done—they won't know what I regret and what I'm proud of!"

Itachi sighed, irritated. "You said that my name sounded familiar. Do you know a boy, a year or two younger than you?"

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Review/fave/make it known that you're reading this story, and I will post chapter 2 ASAP rather than when I feel like it! 

Oh, and, ehm...Beta reader? Anyone? Pleeeeeeeease? 


	3. Chapter 2: Confession

**A/n: **Wow. I mean...wow. Really. The last time I really thought about this fanfiction was, like, July...time flies when you're having fun, I guess. :sighs: but I plan to rewrite the later chapters of this, if someone's actually reading this, then I should probably get on this...  
Note to self: STOP WRITING NEW FANFICTIONS BEFORE YOU FINISH THE OLD ONES.

Anyway...thank you very sincerely a lot, to Shushaku the Paisley Maiden (I think her name was...) for actually reading this. I know that on my last story I said that was the last time I list all the fans, but...this seems different. Furthermore, she offered to Beta-read for me. Which leaves a question of, "Um...what now?" I'm almost as new to the concept of Beta as she is, really.

Woah. ItachiOOC, maybe? I suppose, maybe it works, but...Kishimoto wouldn't have done that. Of course, if this story was up to Kishimoto, Haruka probably would have fought Itachi on-sight. Or something. I don't know, I'm not Kishimoto, I don't own Naruto or the characters or anything, so it's really not up to me in the end.

Haruka, and...Masuyo (c) me, Zopponde. They're the only ones who are actually mentioned today.

Look, I did the disclaimer subconsciously, so do I have to say it again? Oh well. Naruto characters, world, etc. (c) Masashi Kishimoto.

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Confession  
Chapter 2

Itachi sighed, irritated. "You said that my name sounded familiar. Do you know a boy, a year or two younger than you?"

Haruka paused, grateful for the change of subject, before thinking about his question. "I'm sure I know several boys a year or two younger than I, but I can't say I personally know any of them unless you give me their names…"

"Just think about their names," Itachi told her.

Haruka sighed, thinking that he was probably just trying to get her to shut up, but she did stop and think about it. _Let's see, a year or two younger than me? Probably the rookie year. So there's probably six people that could be the one he's talking about…probably…_

She mentally listed the current rookies of Leaf Village when she reached the name he was probably talking about. "You mean Uchiha Sasuke?" _Why didn't you think of that sooner?_ Haruka asked herself.

Itachi nodded. "Did he ever say what happened to his family?"

"He's two years younger than I am," Haruka pointed out, "and we were never in the same class, and I was pretty isolated in the first place. The only reason I'm even aware of his name is because his teammate caused a bit of a ruckus in the Chuunin exam. Well," she added, "Sasuke stole a fair deal of attention too, but his teammate generally stuck out more."

There was a short silence between the two before Itachi spoke again. "They're all dead," he said coldly. "My brother Sasuke and I are the only two Uchihas left."

Haruka relaxed in pity. "What happened to them?"

Another pause before Itachi responded, "I killed them all."

Haruka stiffened and froze.

This silence lasted almost a full minute, and was interrupted only by the wind.

Haruka's bobber ducked under, and she jerked the rod, but she was too late and lost the fish.

She sighed tiredly. "I guess that means you expect me to tell you everything."

"No," Itachi responded, "I expect you to realize that Kisame and I are criminals, as is everyone else in our organization, and we won't do anything against you for having done some 'wrong' in your life."

Haruka breathed out slowly, staring at the fishing bobber. "I don't think that what I did was wrong. The way I see it, you shouldn't do something you think is wrong, and if you do it anyway, it's an accident, or it's because you thought it was right until you realized something that proved that it was wrong, in which case you should only regret that you were mistaken into thinking it right.

"But," she went on, "even now, after leaving the warm bed that I had, after being saved by one criminal and starved by another, I still think that it was the right thing to do."

Haruka took a deep breath and made as if to continue, but didn't.

The wind blew a bit.

The bobber dunked and Haruka jerked the rod—and caught it this time. She smirked and reeled it in without any real effort.

The fish came out of the water and Haruka left it for a moment on the end of the rod, out of the water, before she sighed and said quietly, "It's almost as if she wanted to die."

Itachi took no notice, thinking she was just muttering to herself, but she continued.

"Masuyo. She was a fool and a coward, but she bossed everyone around anyway," Haruka explained bitterly. "I really don't like the Niroshi Clan. Those who don't use their bloodline ability are religious figures, and their children can't use it, either, or they become sinners, but they can't even really go anywhere. That's part of why I hated it so much."

Haruka sighed again. "My mother was one of these people. She never changed her body by telling it to do things, except for muscle movements and that. The problem is, when I got dragged back here, I had already used mine. So everyone hated me. The only reason anyone took me in was because they liked the thought of having someone dependent on what they say. Masuyo was just begging for it.

"She never gave me any respect, she had me doing all the chores—honestly, I was half a step above a servant. Except servants got paid," she added bitterly. "And then when Shino-san asked her if he could marry me, she only approved because she wanted me somewhere else and decided that his family would freak me out the best. And she was right," Haruka added. "I did freak out, at the party celebrating my engagement.

"She took me to her room to talk to me, because," she added a bitter laugh, "I didn't know about it yet, and she didn't want me to freak out in front of everyone. It would make her look worse, getting me married without my knowing.

"And I quote," Haruka continued, " 'Haruka, you're so worthless to this family that I decided to give you to another family.' I responded cheerfully, because I didn't realize exactly what she meant. So she smiled but raised her eyebrow and said, 'I didn't know you wanted to get married so badly.' And…well…I snapped. I heard a bit more of what she had to say, about how worthless I was but this other family has this cute little boy who would love me as his wife, blah blah blah, oh, by the way, he wields your greatest fear."

Haruka gritted her teeth. "I'd rather not go into the details, but I can tell you that Masuyo left this world by my hand."

Itachi nodded and stood up. "Thank you for telling me this. Now I have to go."

Haruka sighed, suddenly tired now that she had confessed. "I should be the one thanking you for listening. I'll see you when I have a few more fish, Itachi-niisama."

Itachi paused, seemingly taken by surprise by his new title, but turned and went back into the shack.

Haruka sighed again, relieved to not be keeping a secret anymore. She kicked her feet lightly in the water, wondering vaguely what her real self was doing while her clone just sat there, waiting for a fish to bite the hook and hoping that the one she just caught would be the first of many today as her stomach growled.

* * *

The end. Of Chapter 2. Yay, or something.

And have I mentioned how much I have of this story already written?


	4. Chapter 3: Contemplation

**A/n:** Okay. In this chapter, A/n won't stand for "Author's note." It will stand for "Appologetic note." Because I think this is a good time to start appologizing.

First, I'm sorry to the few who were actually watching this story (or watching me in the hopes that I _would_ post more of this story) and the wait. I don't know why I didn't post sooner, but I didn't.

Second, I'm sorry that it _remains_ un-Beta'd. Antifishestablishmentarianist (whose username I probably mispelled and, for the sake of simplicity, I'm going to refer to as Antifishie) _said_ that...um...s/he would Beta for me (or at least this story). I tried to contact him/her on that note, but s/he didn't respond. Which is probably just as well, because I'm still too new to know even the proper way to approach someone in asking them to Beta, much less the process of sending it and recieving it and editing it and...blah. No, FFN has been kind to me, and I'm going to trust that potential flamers will take pity on my poor soul and this fanfiction that was written...oh gosh, it's been a while.  
...half...a freaking...year...it's been, since I started this thing.  
Or more.  
:Epiphany'd!:  
So yeah, this was written half a year ago, and I don't generally have the time to run through things before I post them, so it reflects my writing skills half a year ago, which was about three months before I even really heard of FFN, and I haven't really written _anything_ concerning this particular fanfiction since (except...yeah, side-conversations), so...yup.  
But if you think I should have gotten a Beta reader anyway, blame Anitifishie.

Third, I'm sorry to the people who are watching me for other stories. Yeah, this will probably be disorienting if you never looked at this story before and were only interested in, say, Dawn of the Red Family, wherein, not only is there another Haruka (Haruka1.2, to be specific--the other one's Haruka2.0). Needless to say, you're probably watching me for DRF, and I have no problems with you not reading this.  
...well, I suppose I do have problems, but I'd prefer that you just not read it than you read it and say something like "Dude, stop focusing on this geezer and keep going on DRF!"  
(a) I don't have to worry about writting on this fanfiction for a long time. Posting it's the only issue.  
(b) Really. I think I have...sixty or seventy thousand words of this story on one document on my computer. DRF probably doesn't have that much, all three documents combined.  
But, yeah. If you do suddenly decide to read this story, please, please, _please_ realize that this is Haruka1.2 we're talking about, rather than Haruka2.0. Haruka2.0 has a twin brother, long brown hair, and was told lies so that she'd stay with Akatsuki. Haruka1.2 is an only child, with short black hair, and associates with Akatsuki...hrm...that comes up later.

The fourth thing shouldn't even have to be said.  
This is fan_fiction_. It didn't actually happen, not even in the fandom.  
Of course it's not lined up to the pixel of Masashi Kishimoto's work.  
Of course someone's going to be out of character.  
If you have issues that bad with it, what are you doing on this site?

**Disclaimer:** Haruka and Masuyo are mine. Everyone else is Masashi Kishimoto's retirement plan.

* * *

**Contemplation  
Chapter 3**

Haruka sneezed. _I hope that clone catches a lot of fish_, she thought. _I'm going to need a lot of food to recover from this damn cold!_

She paused to pluck a helpful herb from the ground and moved on.

A few minutes passed similarly, and she began to consider heading back to the shack when she thought she heard something and stopped.

She heard it again and confirmed it: it was the sound of someone walking through the forest.

An almost familiar female voice nearby muttered something and she heard a considerably more recognizeable voice call out, "Haru-chan! There you are!"

Haruka cringed, a pause that gave her energetic pursuer enough time to jump out of a tree and directly in front of her in an orange-and-blue blur, blocking her escape.

"Haru-chan, we've been looking all over for you!" Haruka knew the colorful ninja, named Naruto. She was still grateful for his previous actions, but she knew that he'd drag her back if it was the last thing he did.

She held herself stiffly in a vaguely offensive manner, but then remembered that, though it hadn't exactly been the most quiet death, Masuyo had hardly screamed or anything, so they might still be trying to figure out who killed her at this point.

"Why did you run away?" Naruto asked innocently as three other familiar ninjas dropped from nearby trees in a circling pattern, one considerably more so than others.

Haruka cringed again. _Damn it, of all the people who could have followed me, it had to be Shino's team and Naruto! My clone had better be having better luck than I am!_

"Naruto, you were supposed to wait for the signal," Shino's male teammate, whose name Haruka never could remember, scolded. His ever-present dog yapped once in agreement from his owner's feet.

Haruka sighed. "Okay, why do I have a full team of ninjas after me?"

Naruto looked at her as if confused. "Because you should be at home, why else?"

Haruka twitched angrily. "How many times have I said it today, Leaf Village is _**not** my home_!!"

"I don't think that's all," Shino's dog-loving teammate added. "I think I heard some talk of suspected of attempted murder."

Haruka felt a pang of panic. _**Attempted?!**_ she thought. _Did she actually survive?_

Shino's head snapped to face his teammate. "Do you actually _believe_ any of that? Do you _really_ believe that Haru-chan could do such a thing?"

Shino's other teammate, Himaka or something, piped up. "Um, Shino, p-please calm down…"

Haruka sighed. "Yeah, really, please do calm down. I can defend myself perfectly well, thank you very much."

"So," Naruto chipped in, "are you coming home?"

Haruka sighed again and looked up at the trees, contemplating. _I have a clone back with Itachi-sama and Kisame-san, she thought, and I really should settle this whole "attempted" bit…_

She smiled as innocently as she could. "Yeah, I guess so. These woods are getting boring, I'd like to head back to civilization now."

* * *

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